Dark Souls II - Revealed at VGAs

Originally Posted by JDR13
I tried several times to get into Dark Souls, but the game didn't grab me. I just couldn't get comfortable with the controls with either a gamepad or m+k.

I'm in the same boat. I really wanted to like the game too. But it just didn't grab me either. Though DSFix made the game look prettier and made M+K better, it was the game itself that just isn't my 'cup of tea.'

— If I'm right but there is no wife around to acknowledge it, am I still right?

Originally Posted by sakichop
I will give them a try have you tried any of the dark soul mods on the nexus site?

Not really, did not know they existed! Had a brief look, and they all seem to revolve around the features offered by the resolution fix wrapper.

The resolution fix and mouse fix were the only things that needed modding for me to unlock this beast of a game. The level design in this game and how areas are interlinked on its own deserves praise (once you are out of the asylum).

Originally Posted by SpoonFULL
Not really, did not know they existed! Had a brief look, and they all seem to revolve around the features offered by the resolution fix wrapper.

The resolution fix and mouse fix were the only things that needed modding for me to unlock this beast of a game. The level design in this game and how areas are interlinked on its own deserves praise (once you are out of the asylum).

Thanks for the info. Hope I can get into it I'd definitely like to see what all the praise is about.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I tried several times to get into Dark Souls, but the game didn't grab me. I just couldn't get comfortable with the controls with either a gamepad or m+k.

Should try again. I promise its better than Dungeon Lords mmxii

99% of the time I'm kb+m for games. 99.9% even. But I couldn't stand it for this game. Somehow the 30FPS doesn't feel bad with the controller, but with the mouse it just felt wrong somehow. Like Divinity 2 just felt wrong.

My tips would be don't worry about parrying. Lock on to your target by pressing down the right stick. Your left triggers are your shield; Block and Parry. Just approach your target with your shield up and strafe around behind him. He'll swing and miss or you'll block, then backstab. (Parrying/Backstab is always touch range and nothing to do with the enemy weapon size btw)

With all the boss fights if you "restore humanity" at a fire it will make runes on the floor (often hidden, such as the paladin in catacombs for the Pinwheel fight a pro might do early) to summon an NPC appear which makes most the fights pretty simple. Always kindle the fires.

Hey, this could turn into a serious rant so /rant.

edit: OK, one more

You might be thinking "wtf do i put stats"

I like the Claymore. If you just went 16str, 10dex then enchanted the claymore into a lightning claymore it would remove the bonus damage from STR/DEX but do plenty of damage and you could then throw heaps of points into VIT and END for armor. If you're anything like my your first game you probably put loads of points into STR cos you were making a fighter and then realised it wasn't adding to your damage very much at all. I've won the game with just a +4 lightning claymore.

I can't really get into Dark Souls myself, either. I played Demon's Souls on PS3 quite a bit, but I just got tired of the rhythm towards the mid-end game. DS seems to be very much the same, and seems to be almost exclusively about overcoming enemies and being extremely careful. There doesn't seem to be any roleplaying involved and the story looks to be extremely sparse - just like Demon's Souls.

That gives everything a barren feeling. Sure, the environments look good - but there's minimal interaction beyond breakables. You can find items that don't appear in the world (I prefer visible objects), but you don't really find much that tells a story - or maybe I didn't get far enough.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
You can find items that don't appear in the world (I prefer visible objects)

What does this even mean?

But yeah, it's not so much of an RPG as it is an atmospheric action game. The combat, atmosphere, level and monster design is absolutely stunning imo, well worth playing it "just" for that. The lore is really great too, not that there's a ton of it, but what's there is great.

edit: ah ok, i think i understand what you meant, that some objects arent visible 3D objects. i can agree with that..

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Yeah, that's been my impression of this: a combat action game with some exploration and lore mixed in. I am still intrigued, though. Is the combat action better than Severance or Mount and Blade?

It is different and better in many ways. You have control over both hands so you can use both for weapons, weapons with magic, weapons with shields, two handed weapons and so on. Magic is short and long range. You also have bows which feel very satisfying. You have separate controls for each hand. Different weapons have different weight to them and you can 'feel' it during combat and movement. Combining combat buttons with movement/jump keys produces magnificent moves.

There are many degrees of freedom to customise your combat. I sometimes see other players naked without any armour and rely on their combat reflexes to win admirably. Other (lazy gits like myself) like to collect heavy armour and move and smash like the Hulk to win! The degrees of freedom available are amazing.

I should probably say the game mechanics as a whole is what makes me really enjoy the game. I think it's all really well thought out, everything from combat, gear, souls, spells and dispells, upgrading/leveling, resting/saving and multiplayer/invasion. The design is close to perfection. Initially it's all a bit confusing and it put me off, it's a game in itself to figure things out since not even the manual explains a lot of it. It's not a game you figure out in an hour.

It's been far too long since i played Severance, but i think the combat is a lot better than M&B (i only played the first game in that series). At first it feels rather mechanical and it did put me off, but like any good RPG the combat gets a lot better with better gear and skills, figuring out how to take out enemies is a lof of fun. What first seems impossible gets very rewarding when you find out their weak spot and suddenly can take a specific enemy type out with ease. It's a great mix of player skill and gear/level.

Originally Posted by SpoonFULL
The degrees of freedom available are amazing.

Indeed. Really fun to try out different armors, weapons and techniques and what works for you. It's also a bit of a misconception that the game is hard. It's as hard as you want it to be since there are endless opportunities for just grinding and leveling up, which in turn will make the game easier, obviously.

Originally Posted by vurt
It's also a bit of a misconception that the game is hard. It's as hard as you want it to be since there are endless opportunities for just grinding and leveling up, which in turn will make the game easier, obviously.

It's hard if you head towards guys you can handle. (aka the way a new player will go.)

If you take a "pro" path using the master key you can run straight to the swamp and run around collecting souls of undead and very nice items.

If you take the path that appears easy up the hill to the undead burg you have a huge distance to get to the swamp… But you do get the large ember and you gotta get it some time.

It's kind of an "easy when you know how" thing.

Messages players can leave on the ground to tell of secrets, dangers, etc. The game is all about being able to tell people secrets. There's a wiki with chat going and people talk about the game 24/7. It's really a pretty fun game to play with spoilers.

There's really no reason to grind on easy monsters at all. You're still doing it the hard way if you do.

Yeah, i forgot the messaging system, it's as genious as the rest. I'm not sure i agree it's doing it the "hard way" by grinding easy monsters, it's just one of the things you can do to make it easier, i'm sure there are spoilers that could make it even easier, but i have tried to stay away from making it too easy, i'm not reading spoilers apart from the built in messaging system

Originally Posted by vurt
well that's the whole idea.. its a desolate, lonely and depressing place with few characters. It really sets a nightmareish and very unique tone.. a bit similar to shadow of the colossus, another masterpiece.

This is correct. The atmosphere is dark, thick and foreboding..and navigating the world is constantly a tense affair. The monsters (their difficulty and appearance) greatly contribute to this. Due to this, defeating them feels like a real victory.

Originally Posted by vurt
It's a very hard game until you level up and get good gear, exactly how i want RPG's to be, hate starting off as a demi-god.

I am not sure if leveling really helps. This game is mainly about methodical combat, which is largely determined by how you control your character on the screen and exploit the monsters' weaknesses. It is hardly about the skillset. Sure, leveling helps in resistance buffs, but it is really not essential to survive. Prime example is Ornstein and Smough fight..which is unwinnable no matter your level, unless you keep on your toes and fight them in specific patterns.

Originally Posted by Nameless one
DS is more than just combat.As Vurt said in few posts above it's one of most atmospheric games,dark and ruined world of DS where bad guys have won feels different than other games.There is also well written lore(usually found in item description),and very good level design and nice art style and well designed multiplayer.

What I like about DS is how utterly insignificant it makes you feel, almost always. The world never revolves around your character..you are just one of the undead who may or may not ring the Bells of Awakening. No one cares of bothers about whether you do it or not. This is in contrast with many RPGs, where everyone that you meet along the way looks at you as some kind of savoir. I was playing Dragon's Dogma recently..great game. But everywhere I go, people were yelling "Arisen this, Arisen that..". The world revolved around you. In Souls series games, you are always a nobody and your primary goal is surviving in the hostile world.

Leveling is absolutely essential since weapons has stats requirements, and weapons matters. I also found the game extremely difficult until i had upped endurance quite a bit so i could move and roll faster using heavy armor. Being fast is very important in this game, but so is being able to take a lot of damage.

Weapons do not matter that much really. Remember jump attacks, which are super effective on the bosses? Many enemies also can be killed by hit and run. Of course there are exceptions, Four Kings and the last boss, for example. But by and large, you can survive mainly by clever maneuvering, not getting surrounded and picking enemies one by one. You need stamina to move only if you are wearing heavy armor..but I have seen multiple naked level 1 runs on YouTube.

Originally Posted by Aditya
Weapons do not matter that much really. Remember jump attacks, which are super effective on the bosses? Many enemies also can be killed by hit and run. Of course there are exceptions, Four Kings and the last boss, for example. But by and large, you can survive mainly by clever maneuvering, not getting surrounded and picking enemies one by one. You need stamina to move only if you are wearing heavy armor..but I have seen multiple naked level 1 runs on YouTube.

Exactly - you have choice. For me, however, leveling up and being able to carry/use heavier swards and armour for protection is essential as I am not very fast with my fingers on the keyboard. So I use the full mouldy green stone armour (forgot its name) and move and smash my way through beasts and knights in the game (still need to dodge and roll of course, but very slow).

Originally Posted by Aditya
Weapons do not matter that much really. Remember jump attacks, which are super effective on the bosses? Many enemies also can be killed by hit and run. Of course there are exceptions, Four Kings and the last boss, for example. But by and large, you can survive mainly by clever maneuvering, not getting surrounded and picking enemies one by one. You need stamina to move only if you are wearing heavy armor..but I have seen multiple naked level 1 runs on YouTube.

yeah i know that a lot of bosses can be taken out by "exploits" or by pure player skill (and a lot of time).. but the game is more than bosses, it's really nice to be able to take out the "trash mobs" quickly.. i watched a youtube video of a level 1 and wow, every enemy took a great deal of time for him even though he was a very skilled player. He just didnt do much damage with his weak weapon and low level.

What you're describing is not the average, first time player who thinks this game is really difficult, you're talking about people who's probably spent hundreds of hours on the game already, perfecting their skills and reading up on everything etc. Because i doubt they started out by doing a naked run, using a weak weapon and not leveling up at all in their first play through

Originally Posted by SpoonFULL
So I use the full mouldy green stone armour (forgot its name) and move and smash my way through beasts and knights in the game (still need to dodge and roll of course, but very slow).

Yeah that's the armor i'm using too, really nice when you also have a good amount of endurance so that you still can roll and move fairly fast with it..